The Difference Between You and Job

Why did God allow Satan to attack Job? Why did He take the hedge of protection down from Job’s life? Satan came before God’s throne “among the sons of God” (Job 1:6). He still comes before God among the sons of God (John 1:12), every time a fellow believer speaks ill of his brother or sister. Satan has no access to God’s throne other than in the mouth of Christians accusing one another. But why did God take the hedge of His protection from Job (Job 1:10-12)? Don’t give an answer drawn from popular Christian thinking on the subject. Give scripture. In John 10:10 Jesus said He came that we might have life and life more abundantly. There is nothing that Job experienced after the hedge was taken from him that could be described as “abundant life.” What is the answer then?

Read Job 9:33:

[Job 9:33 KJV] 33 Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, [that] might lay his hand upon us both.

Job is acknowledging (and complaining) that there was no “daysman” between him and God. What is a daysman? A daysman is a mediator. Remember that what happened to Job in his lifetime was during the time of the patriarchs, even before the law came under Moses. God may have shown favor to Job but there was nonetheless no covenantal connection between them – thus there was no sure protection that accrued to him from God’s hand. What about you and me?

In his first letter to Timothy Paul shows us the profound and marked difference between where the believer stands with God and where Job stood with God:

[1Ti 2:5 KJV] 5 For [there is] one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

Job didn’t have the name of Jesus to call on. Job couldn’t plead the blood of Christ. He had no basis on which to resist the devil when he came against him. When we, on the other hand, are attacked by Satan we have ready access to Jesus’ name, the protection of the blood of Christ and the righteousness before God that was purchased for us on Calvary – not just to help us endure but to throw back the enemy and see all that is stolen restored sevenfold. That is the difference between Job and you and me. In Job’s time, Jesus had not yet come therefore his access to God was not the same as the ready access you and I have. Are you suffering? Be encouraged, you have recourse before the Father to stop the mouth of the accuser and go free from the assault that he might bring against you.

Note: [There are those who insist that God does put sickness, etc., on men for His “ineffable” purposes, i.e. to teach them something, to allow them to suffer for the sins of the world, etc.,] To be clear: God will NEVER put ON YOU what the CROSS takes off of you (neither will he authorize any believer or minister by loose words or feigned “authority” to do this either – that would be sorcery). Jesus became poor so that you could be rich, rejected so that you could be accepted, took stripes that you might be healed, went to hell so you could go to heaven.

Some maintain they suffer VICARIOSLY for some INEFFEBLE reason (mysterious reason). To do so would be to suggest that person is SO HOLY and WITHOUT SIN that their suffering can mitigate the penalty for sin upon another). To think this way is religious pride and shows a lack of understanding of the doctrine of redemption and the nature of sin. This is a doctrine that originates in the synagogue of satan. It is impossible for a person to suffer vicariously because all are born in sin (which is lifted only by the righteousness of Christ imputed by faith). The soul that sinneth … it will die. Jesus came to save us from our sins and the consequences of our sin.

To assume you are suffering for any reason others than 1.) personal sin; 2.) unbelief; 3.) or simply being born into a sin prone curse prone environment – is an uninformed viewpoint. Only Jesus (sinless son of God) can suffer for anyone other than one of the three reasons above. Jesus said “I came that you might have life and life more abundantly —” He didn’t say “unless I have some mysterious reason why I want you to have cancer, sickness, poverty, etc.

It is human nature (pride) to want to find a higher purpose in suffering because we want our world to make sense. Knowledge (reasonings addressing the unknown) puffs up and convinces people that somehow they are SO chosen by God to have “the sufferings of Job…” when Jesus came – to give life, and Satan is here to kill, steal or destroy. If it is killing, stealing or destroying you it is Satan and has nothing to do with God – who unlike Job’s case gave us a “daysman” or mediator (because in Job’s time Jesus was not yet given).

Likewise, God isn’t trying to teach you something by sickness, death, poverty because Jesus said the Teacher is the Comforter – not the tormentor. And the Comforter Jesus said will teach you ALL things. Satan is not Jesus’ substitute teacher, teaching you something that the Holy Spirit cannot. To attribute the works of the devil to God is blasphemy. Let God love you with His promises. Let wrong thinking go and embrace the good news of His love and the implications of His love as expressed on the cross.